the Great Outdoors (intermediate weapon forms)

[Talavin]

OOC: Umm... Corwin taught those four to Arath and Melenis, he taught Perivar and Jasine a different four forms.

 

IC: Arath paired up with Melenis, and the duo was taken aside by Corwin. Arath wondered what they would be learning; it seemed that if he was teaching forms he should just teach them all together. Apparently the instructor didn't think that way, however, because he imediately started teaching him and Melenis four new forms. He took about an hour until the two of them could preform The Boar Rushes Down The Mountain, The Creeper Embraces the Oak, The Falling Leaf, and The Heron Spreads its Wings decently.

 

Arath practiced the forms, obeying the man's orders. He lost count of how many times he practiced the various forms, repetition after repetition. He worked on getting them faster and having them flow smoothly from one form to the next. He found that The Creeper Embraces the Oak flowed very well with the Falling Leaf, and The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain could go into The Heron Spreads its wings.

 

When he could get those four forms to flow decently, he began using the basic forms as well, learning how to incorperate the new forms into his old ones. Arath found that he would need a lot more time and practice before mastering all of the new forms, but he could at least become proficiant with them. He hoped to become comfortable enough with the forms that Corwin didn't make them practice all day again. Arath was accustomed to wearing himself out, but it wasn't smart to train to exhastion two days in a row.

[Quisalas Selene]

Jasine worked through the forms as Master Corwin explained them to him.  He'd tried to watch Corwin teaching the first two trainees these forms, and he could tell right away that these weren't the same movements Melenis and Arath had been working through.  He started to say something about it but then Master Corwin barked an order for him to strengthen his stance and stop woolgathering.  With a chagrined look at his teacher, he did as he was told. 

 

The River Undercuts the Bank seemed simple enough, it was just a horizontal slash and when Corwin said that the form could be used both standing or kneeling, Jasine instantly saw how useful it would end up being in a number of circumstances.  He moved through it several times with slight variations, getting a feel for it, until Corwin moved onto the next one.  The Swallow Takes Flight and its companion guard The Swallow Rides the Air flowed together so easily that Jasine knew he would have to take special care not to use the diagonal slash only with the guard.  They would both work independent of each other and he needed to make sure he didn't melt them together into a single series of actions as instinct.  Tower of Morning was a move that had clear possibilities, but would also leave him open as he moved both his hands through bring the sword in a slash straight up.  Performed properly, the slash would be devastating and even if it was stopped partway, the location where it struck at first could be particularly debilitating with even a minor wound. Light, but I'll need to learn how to block that one effectively!

 

He worked through the forms until Corwin dismissed them for the day, trying to work each of the new forms effectively in with the ones Master Kynwric had taught him.  Some clicked into place easily, others he had to work at.  He said their names softly under his breath as he moved through them, he didn't want to use the names improperly and end up looking a fool.

[Jehaine]

Melenis watched Corwin go through the forms, instructing her about the equivalents for polearms. She was a bit surprised to learn there was a version of Heron Wading in the Rushes that was more suited for combat though, it was something she had been attempting to develop on her own after learning the form meant for balance.

 

Much like Arath, she too was training on combinations with the basic forms she knew. The Creeper Embraces the Oak and The Falling Leaf were forms she took to almost immediately though, fitting her preferred style the best of the new forms she learned. Her weapon's prime asset was its range advantage, and by keeping the pressure on an opponent she'd prevent him from closing the distance to make an attack of his own. Those two, combined with Hummingbird Kisses the Honeyrose would prove to be quite a set...

 

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Jasine perform what looked like an inverted version of The Boar Rushes Down the Mountain, suspecting he had picked it up from a Warder in the Yards somewhere. Most Warders weren't reluctant to teach Trainees a form or two, and with all of them having improved considerably since joining the Yards, it would only have been a matter of time before differences in style would start to show. She'd just have to focus more on the forms she knew to compensate the next time she'd spar him. Assuming the Void, she focused on her forms again, mentally going through the movements she'd be forcing her opponent to make.

 

 

Melenis

Will beat you all someday ^^

[Corwin]

Corwin pushed them all near the point of collapse, but not quite.  The needed to learn to endure, but exhausting the muscles twice in a row would not help that, he had to keep pushing them near the breaking point... until they would be able to go for hours and hours at least.  But that was all a long time off.  It would be some time before they noticed their bodies doing better, and even longer before they fully realized how much he was doing for them...  But Corwin didn't care, he had never realized just what his Masters were doing until much later... but now he was grateful for it.

 

Once he saw them seriously lagging, he sent them home.  Feeling for Eqwina, he could tell she was still in the Tower, and he didn't know why she spent so much time there, but it didn't matter.  If she needed him there, she would find a way to tell him,  but tonight he decided he would breakdown and visit her.

 

The next afternoon Corwin watched the students come in, clearly they were dreading another full day of practicing, but it didn't matter, they would do what he told them.  Corwin told Arath and Perivar to go to one side and had Melenis and Jasin on the other.  Now... spar.  It was a simple instruction, and Corwin was interested to see how each did adapting to fighting someone who knew things they did not.  It was a lesson everyone needed, and this was a great time to teach them in a friendly way.

 

Corwin

[Sieve]

The next afternoon Corwin watched the students come in, clearly they were dreading another full day of practicing, but it didn't matter, they would do what he told them.  Corwin told Arath and Perivar to go to one side and had Melenis and Jasine on the other.  Now... spar. 

 

Perivar and Arath began to spar when Corwin gave them the command.  It didn't take long to realize that each had been taught a form that was different from those they knew.  Too often one of them was left completely vulnerable to the other's strike.  On occasion both of them landed simultaneous blows on each other as a result of the opposing forms they were taught.  Even though it pained him to admit, Arath's blows almost always landed a heartbeat sooner than his own. 

 

Perivar tried to flow through the progression of forms as fast as possible switching them up as much as possible trying to recognize the new forms and react appropriately.  No matter how he adjusted there were still times when he was caught completely off guard watching the lathe strike him with a resounding clack. 

[Jehaine]

Melenis frowned in surprise when she noticed Jasine using different forms than she had been taught. Her mind suggested the possibility that she had indeed seen Jasine perform a form unknown to her yesterday, but judging by the look of surprise on his face mirroring hers she figured Corwin would definitely know more about this. Still, she had the advantage of both reach and speed, and as such had an easier time fending off Jasine's attacks than he had fending off hers. The true ordeal, she realised, was trying to learn just what forms he knew that she did not. Preferably before Jasine did the same to her.

 

When Jasine caught The Boar Rushing Down the Mountain with his off-hand shoulder, Melenis became wary. From previous spars against him, she knew this to be a tactic he used when about to make a counterattack. True enough, with the speed out of her weapon he rushed in, and she was forced to block the katana with the shaft of her weapon, using it as a quarterstaff. However, fast as she may be, strength was not one of her best traits.

 

Though the attack itself was blocked, the momentum brought her off balance, and she managed to twist her fall into an improvised Parting the Silk aimed at Jasine's knees. Already expecting the attack, he jumped out of the way, and by the time he had resumed his stance Melenis was already getting up again. Time for round two...

 

 

Melenis

Taking turns sparring